"A WORKING GESTALT PERSPECTIVE" &
"Seven Phases of Personal Change"

         This gestalt perspective sees life as like a jigsaw puzzle. Each being has or is one's own gestalt puzzle, and all life composes the universal gestalt puzzle. It helps me to see this as a 3-dimensional globe of innumerable beings all connected by a latticework or web of the love of God. Each of the pieces of the puzzle has a place in its puzzle, whether it is part of an individual's puzzle or a whole being in the universal puzzle. Each piece is connected to every other piece, to one degree or another. This says that Purpose and Connectedness are given realities -- they are constants -- no matter how distorted or dis-connected a piece appears in its current position.

         An experience is one piece of a gestalt puzzle. Thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about result from that experience. These are subsidiary or associated pieces. All pieces of the puzzle are connected and have a role to play, even if a piece is invisible from one's current perspective. Actually, invisibility would just be one of the roles of that piece, at that time. Every existing aspect plays an evolving role in this light -- in an evolving gestalt universe.

         In the physical body, every cell has it's own set of gifts, capabilities, essential aspects that it contributes for overall equilibrium. And yet, each cell has it's limits and even liabilities - depending on how it is used, placed, moved, etc. And so systems, made of other specialized cells, provide the organization and management to insure the most efficiency overall under any given condition. The management oriented cells don't have an ego to compete with the other cells to feel more loved or valuable or important- they all just do what they do best - and do this without any preferential recognition of one over the other.

         The body, therefore, shows how diversity is absolutely critical to overall health. That is a simple view of our physiology, but even it's most complex view serves as a metaphor for ideal cooperation within an intensely diverse system. Of course, humans are also each contending with an emotional body, a set of parents or authorities who are also human that treat the child with varying degree of skill and consistency of good intention, and we develop from there under varying degree and types of challenge. And we have that ego -- necessary to both survive the worst of that and keep us challenged with the paradox of individuality vs empathic fusion/"oneness," and need for realization of how to balance or transcend. And so on, depending on ones view of psychology, conventional or transpersonal. But one message the physical body gives us (if we choose to look at it this way) is that we each have essential value, a critical role to play, a place to be, and are unconditionally loved by the overall Being that we each are an equally important part of. That would be a system we can emulate.

         Let's take an example in which a piece of the Universal Gestalt puzzle, a member of the human race, appears totally unacceptable (to self and/or others). S/he may feel/appear that way when not in his/her "final" place. Still, s/he has a role to play and may use "coping mechanisms" and related strategies in the current position and process. The present state creates challenge and motivation leading to change that is also essential to the overall assembly of the puzzle. How s/he got "out of place" is history that can be used to learn - and teach. Even the non-repeatable can be appreciated (only in retrospect) due to some learning, the timing of which turned out to be critical for a subsequent development. When we appreciate the temporary states, the "piece" (or person) which appears distorted in the previous context (associated only with "negative" experience and feelings), finds more and more fitting places in the puzzle. This is one of the gifts of doing the process. Also, other pieces it was next to, other persons in one's relationship, thus find more connected and useful places and roles - eventually also with fewer and fewer coping mechanisms.

         Put in personal growth terms, a person may feel dis-connected and without a role -- separated from love and acceptance. It's sometimes easy to feel that some parts of us -- certain recurring thoughts or feelings -- just don't belong inside of us. In that case it's not uncommon to want to separate such parts from ourselves -- to dis-own them. Feeling separate results from feeling judged -- by self and/or others, consciously or unconsciously -- as unwanted, undeserving, not enough, etc. Just having this experience creates pain (or makes one aware of previously unconscious pain), and we may believe at the time that cutting out the thought or feeling will heal the condition. Thence, pain is one experience (or part of an experience) that we may not want to believe has a place in the gestalt puzzle. Pain does result from feeling separated from one's source of love and acceptance - and/or whom one feels is that source. Since (at least some would say) we often are not conscious of the true source, let alone of where the pain is actually coming from. The *core* of the pain may have originated in his/her infancy, when the child first felt cut-off from his/her parents' needed attention, then reinforced in certain kinds of recurring situations through life.

         The belief that "everthing has its place in the world" is probably the basis for Gestalt Psychology. Among other things, that says that a newborn baby seeks only to love and be loved. That is its total underlying intention and motivation for coming into and staying in the world. I do not believe in the idea that "underneath all the stuff of a person is a sinful being that needs to be forced into submission by a vengeful God and his fearful servants." [One can only guess the percentage of atheists have been created in reaction to that one. However, "Reaction" is not "Action" when comes to forgiving and healing destructive early programming.] I do believe that all we have ever experienced has a purpose in our lives, regardless of how little we would want some of it repeated by anyone.

         In the Eastern metaphysical perspective, because we are all a work in progress and all souls eventually come to total oneness of All That Is, we are all perfect in spite of the out-of-place pieces, not just because or when the pieces are in their final places. Having said something which can be most difficult to understand by the average western -trained mind, I will add that in this perspective, each soul is *responsible* for his/her own growth, redemption, evolution, and ever-increasing the opening to God for the capacity and assistance to do that -- over however many thousands of lifetimes and hardtimes it takes to do that. Hence, The principles of "... no free lunch," "earn your learning," and "infinite compassion" all apply here more than in any other cosmology I know of. And when is "final", if we are designed for self-realization and if there is always more to realize outside our existing perspective??? Related: the essay "A Concept of Health & Healing for the Whole Being" (not revised since very early 90's; please email me @chalicer@iinet.com and ask for this if desired.)

         What's really beautiful about the gestalt puzzle, is that there are pieces of the puzzle (people) that provide for the assessment and rearrangement (transformation) of the puzzle. The increasing realization of acuity, depth, and breadth -- which includes compassion -- in viewing one's life-puzzle goes along with the successful overall management (and evolution) of the puzzle. This tells me that we were designed to be self-realizing, which means that we had to begin relatively un-self-realized. That we, as a microcosm of the macrocosm, are designed to grow and learn. That therefore, our being less than perfect from any perspective is *a point of view.* In other words, from the perspective of the Gestalt, the *process* - that includes the above mentioned coping mechanisms, challenges, and gifts - is part of the plan of the universal gestalt puzzle. This perspective is elaborated in a much more technical application in "The Body Pattern Assessment/Reading and Understanding the Pattern Triad."

          Slightly tangential note about Gestalt Psychology as compared to Buddhist Psychology (whereas I my own system is an integration of both): Buddhists generally attempt transcendence or conscious sublimation of emotion, whereas Gestalt therapy focuses on it for the purpose of bringing "plants" of suppressed emotion constructively to the surface, so can move it out of it's covert-power position and reduce the likelihood of it's ill-effects. That suppressed emotion is the core of internal disorders, diseases, AND the unconscious projection of "stuff" on others - something ALL of us do to some degree. Although no one sees it at the time - except most everyone else. (ouch!) Which is best? Depends on your beliefs about cosmology/reincarnation/karma/transcendence etc, and/or what you've tried with what amount of success (among many other factors you would discuss w/your therapist). I have recently (8/27/10) found a web site all about (and offering) the integration of of the two usually separate approaches - with good, short, pragmatic paragraphs about how & why it works, etc. Just an FYI; Enjoy :-) (http://www.gttcnw.org/buddhist.html) [¶ added , 4/10/11]